Integration or Resegregation: Metropolitan Chicago at the Turn of the New Century.

Stuart, Guy

Using 1990 and 2000 Census data and Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data, this report documents the continuing proliferation of segregated communities across metropolitan Chicago's 6-county area during the 1990s, highlighting segregation across municipalities and school districts. Racial and ethnic segregation persist in the six-county area, though some neighborhoods and suburbs are integrated or offer integration opportunities. African American/white and Latino/white segregation persists across the whole metropolitan area. Nearly 70 percent of all African Americans, and half of all Latinos, living in an incorporated suburb would have to move to a different suburb to achieve integration with white suburbanites. The home buying patterns of African Americans and Latinos show that the situation is likely only to worsen. Both groups are buying homes segregated from whites and each other. However, some neighborhoods and suburbs illustrate how integration is possible, and many suburbs offer considerable integration opportunities. The people most likely to suffer the consequences of segregation are children. To create integrated African American/white or Latino/white suburban school districts, 68 percent of African American and half of Latino children would have to move to different school districts. Appendix includes details behind the methodology and study findings. (Contains 21 figures and 16 tables.) (SM)